


Of Oboes and Violins

by frizefries



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, There is cussing so beware!, details of alcohol and drug use, symphony au, wonwoo and junhui in a symphony
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-03-20 16:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13721130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frizefries/pseuds/frizefries
Summary: Wonwoo auditions for a symphony during his last year of university. He soon finds himself looking at a bright oboe player named Wen Junhui. Or the au where Wonwoo and Jun are in a symphony.





	1. Caprice No.25

**Author's Note:**

> There are depictions of alcohol and (very minor) drug use in this chapter!

The sound of Caprice No.25 soothed Wonwoo. He doesn’t remember the last time that he was this nervous. His clasped hands shook as he waited for his name to be called out. 

“Jeon Wonwoo,” speak of the devil, Wonwoo thought. 

He slung his violin case over his shoulder and head toward the stage. As he approaches, he is greeted by a young boy. The boy smiled at him and opens the door leading to the stage. When Wonwoo walks past the door, he sees two people waiting at the bottom of the stage. They must be the people who will decide whether or not Wonwoo is good enough.

Once Wonwoo has bowed, the elderly man on the left asks, “Mr. Jeon, can you tell us the two pieces that you will be playing today?” 

“I will be playing Concerto in G Minor by A. Vivaldi and Sonata II in G Minor by G.F. Händel, sir,” Wonwoo answered. 

“You may proceed when you’re ready.”

He took out his violin and bow from his case, positioning them by his neck. He breathed in and drew the bow. The familiar graceful and smooth sound of the piece cut through the stage. It was an easier piece that Wonwoo first played in high school, but it brought back many memories of struggling to play the violin. The piece reminded Wonwoo of how much he has improved. 

“Stop,” a stern voice pierced through Wonwoo’s playing.

He stopped playing, waiting for them to say something. 

“You may proceed to play your next piece.”

Wonwoo brought his violin back up and, once again, drew his bow. Sonata II starts off melancholy but eventually becomes a much more faster paced and exciting piece. He loved the different ranging tones in this piece. 

Like before, the judges soon told him to stop, “you did a good job playing the two pieces. Now, could you answer some questions for us?”

Wonwoo nodded.

“What motivates you to play the violin?”

“When I see how much I have improved since I have started playing, it makes me want to practice even more, to become better,” he answered, truly believing in what he said. 

“Where do you see your future with the violin?”

Oh crap, he hasn’t thought much about his future. What does he plan to do after university and a year in the symphony? 

“Well, I plan on, hopefully, making it into Pledis symphony. From there I will continue to improve my violin skills so that I will become a better violinist.”

“Mr. Lee is going to give you two blind pieces to play,” the man on the right said.

“Okay, sir.”

Wonwoo grabbed the pieces from Mr. Lee, thanking him on the way. He recognizes one of the pieces and is able to play that through decently. However, he messed up a part on the other piece.

He is shortly dismissed after that. Wonwoo hopes that he’ll be accepted in. The odds are slim though since he is competing against hundreds of others.

After he turned the corner back to the waiting room, he passes by a guy with auburn hair. The guy meets his gaze and smiles. He had the type of face that was the ideal in Asia; double eyelids, high bridge nose, and a small face. Wonwoo breaks off the eye contact.

Wonder how much plastic surgery he got, Wonwoo scoffed. Wonwoo cleared the stranger out of his mind and walked past the doors to the busy streets. He catches sight of the dark and murky clouds above him. Oh shit, he thought and hurriedly started walking to the bus stop.

 

The main door to his apartment complex swung open as a soaked Wonwoo stormed past. He just had to be caught in the storm. 

“Piss, poor luck,” he muttered under his breath.

He took the elevator up to the floor where he shared an apartment with Soonyoung and Jihoon. The door opened and revealed a Soonyoung holding a pan of burned something that was far from being edible. Wonwoo quickly soon after saw Jihoon hitting Soonyoung with a spatula and yelling at how he’s going to burn the apartment down. 

Wonwoo ignored them, took off his shoes, carefully dumped his violin case on the floor, and headed towards the shower. The hot water made Wonwoo sigh in happiness, he hadn’t realized how cold he was. 

After his shower, Wonwoo walked out to see Soonyoung in one corner of the living room and Jihoon in another. Idiots, he thinks. 

“So…Soonyoung, what’s for dinner?” Wonwoo teased him.

“Shut up Wonwoo, I already ordered take out,” Soonyoung replied gloomily.

“I thought today was supposed to be chef Soonyoung day?” Wonwoo continued on.

“Ha, chef Soonyoung,” Jihoon laughed to himself in his corner. 

“I’d like to see you cook Lee Jihoon!” Soonyoung retorts. 

“At least I’m not in risk of burning the whole apartment down,” Jihoon rolled his eyes.

“Yeah well- ” 

Soonyoung is cut off by a hungry Wonwoo, “can y’all stop shouting? The delivery person is downstairs already.”

Soonyoung muttered some curses as he got up to get the take out. Jihoon looked smug in that little corner of his. 

“How was your audition?” Jihoon asked.

“Could have been better,” Wonwoo replied. 

“Like always.”

Wonwoo is too hungry to argue with Jihoon and just waved a hand. His stomach is quickly saved by Soonyoung’s appearance by the door. He got up from the coach and takes the bags from Soonyoung’s hands. 

“Chinese food?” Wonwoo examines the containers.

“You guessed it,” Soonyoung said.

They ate some spicy noodles (Soonyoung’s nose was runny and his face was red the whole time) while watching the new Marvels movie. Wonwoo wasn’t the biggest fan of action movies, often pointing out how everything could have been solved from the beginning. 

The boys cracked open cans of beer. Even though it was only 7pm, they still started drinking. School won’t start till another week so they might as well enjoy themselves.

At around 9pm and after two more cans, Wonwoo was starting to feel a bit dizzy. Soonyoung had already turned himself into a drunken mess, while Jihoon stopped drinking after the second can. 

“We should go get some drugs,” a drunk Soonyoung slurred.

Wonwoo and Jihoon looked at one another. A drunk Soonyoung was hard enough to handle, a drunk _and_ high Soonyoung was near impossible to handle. Wonwoo shuddered at the memory of the one time they let Soonyoung get his hands on some weed. Never again, he thinks.

“You know what Soonyoung, I think you should get some water,” Jihoon goes into the kitchen.

“No, no, no. I just need another can of beer,” Soonyoung trips getting up.

Wonwoo hurriedly went to steady Soonyoung. His own dizziness started to take over him though. He managed to set both him and Soonyoung down on the couch as a Jihoon holding two cups of water came by.

Jihoon handed one to Soonyoung and one to Wonwoo.

“What is this?” Soonyoung swirled the liquid.

“Drink up,” Jihoon commanded.

Wonwoo and Soonyoung both took a sip at Jihoon’s command. His dizziness is still there but the water is refreshing. The short man in front of him sigh and shake his head.

Soonyoung, on the other hand, starts to get up. Jihoon quickly acts and pushed Soonyoung down.

“Finish up drinking that,” Jihoon looked annoyed.

“I just want another beer Jihoonie,” Soonyoung pouts.

“No, you will not get one.”  
Wonwoo observed this with a lack of interest. They were always disagreeing on something.

“Can we watch another movie?” Wonwoo asked.

“Yes! I’ll bring out the soju!” Soonyoung happily answered.

“Movie not beer, you idiot,” Jihoon scoffed.

However, he didn’t stop Soonyoung from going to the pantry and getting out the soju and some shot glasses. 

“I’m the oldest so drink up everyone!” Soonyoung poured a shot glass for Wonwoo and Jihoon.

“Freaking dumbass,” Jihoon joined Soonyoung at the counter. 

Wonwoo followed after Jihoon. He hated soju, but he wasn’t objecting to getting wasted tonight either. He swallowed the burning liquid. Wonwoo could already feel it going into his system.

At around 12am, he’s lost count of the amount of beer and soju he’s had. He had a faint memory of taking his third shot at 10:30pm. Soonyoung was dead on the floor, Jihoon was muttering something about stupid and idiot, and Wonwoo just wanted to sleep.

He turned off the TV and settled down on the carpet. He doesn’t remember bringing out a blanket or a pillow but he is thankful they are there. Wonwoo quickly fell into a deep slumber, the alcohol in his system inducing a set of dreams that he couldn’t really remember.

 


	2. Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the first week of uni and Wonwoo is already drowning in work. But wait, who's that cute guy seated below him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Edit]  
> Fixed up Wonwoo and Jun's conversation at the university due to Wonwoo's sudden 180 on the appearance of Jun.

A week has gone by and Wonwoo still has not heard back from Pledis. He’s really starting to worry that he didn’t make it. Too bad it’s going to be the least of his worries since school came to punch Wonwoo straight in the guts.

He was drowning in homework given in just two days. He was seriously contemplating to forget all about it tonight and take some shots. Wonwoo wasn’t known for being the bad student, though.

Thus, he spent the majority of his afternoon working on readings and prepping for lectures. He only stopped because he had to go to his music composition lecture. That would be Wonwoo’s favourite course if he wasn’t taking literature as a minor.

He took his usual seat in the middle and proceeded to bring out his notebook. Usually, he was one of the first ones in the lecture hall but today someone was already seated in a row below him. Someone who looked awfully familiar.

Wonwoo knows that he’s seen the guy below him before but he just can’t figure out where. He didn’t want to initiate any conversation between them either. So Wonwoo continued to sit on his ass and check his messages.

He already got five new messages from the group chat.

**Group Chat: HoT BOY At 12 O’CoCk**

**hoeshi:** heeellp me

**hoeshi:** ballet class is already killing meee

**satan:** stop msging us and go focus on your class

**hoeshi:** pls jihoon i beg u be my lord and saviour

**5 minutes later**

**hoeshi:** jihoon???

Wonwoo couldn’t help but snicker at a begging Soonyoung.

**thewonandonly:**  stop whining and get back to dancing

**(hoeshi is typing)**

**hoeshi:** jerks >:( im not getting takeout today

**thewonandonly:** that’s fine. i can get it

**(hoeshi has left the group chat)**

Chuckling to himself, Wonwoo swiped out of the app. The guy below him has started to hum. Wonwoo recognized the piece “Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances” by Alexander Borodin. He first heard the piece when browsing through naver.

Wonwoo loved the thriller and the fast beats in that piece. It was definitely an exciting one. He has practiced it a couple times before, but it didn’t sound as good when there was only a violin part.

Perhaps he should go talk to the guy, Wonwoo thought. He quickly scratched that idea out of his head. Wonwoo wasn’t known for introducing himself to strangers.

He scrolled through Instagram and saw a new post from Mingyu.

**Instagram**

****[ http://bit.ly/2C7saV8 ](http://bit.ly/2C7saV8) ****

**min9yu_k:** throwback to the summer ☀️

Wonwoo had an almost strained relationship with Mingyu. Two years ago, Wonwoo rejected Mingyu’s dating proposal. He just wasn’t interested in having a relationship back then. They still remained friends but they were far from how close they were before the rejection.

This summer, Mingyu went and travelled East Asia with his friend, Minghao. Wonwoo was happy that Mingyu had someone who, obviously, made him happy. He wondered if they were dating yet.

When Wonwoo looked up, he saw many more students in the lecture hall. He checked the time: 4:10pm. Only five more minutes till the lecture would start. He pulled out his laptop from his bag and opened his prepped notes.

The professor walked in as Wonwoo was rereading his notes. Let the lectures begin, he thought.

 

 

Wonwoo waited by the doors outside the building. His bus won’t come until 6pm. He wished that he would have taken a drivers permit class, but it’s not like he would have been able to afford a car.

The doors swung open and the guy below him walked out. Wonwoo recognized him, he was the one that also auditioned. The big, double eyelid eyes, the high nose, and the small face with a nice jaw. Was he checking him out? Wonwoo averted his gaze.

The guy checked his phone for something. Wonwoo guessed that he too was waiting for the bus. He felt a little bit awkward just standing there. His phone had only 10% left because he forgot to charge it.

The stranger looked up at Wonwoo and blushed, “uh…hi.”

Gosh, Wonwoo thought, the stranger could have been cute if his face wasn’t met with the knife, “hi.”

Too bad the situation was awkward as fuck. 

“You were the one at the Pledis audition, right?” 

“..Yeah,” Wonwoo replied. 

“Have you gotten a call back from them yet?” The guy asked.

“No, not yet. You?” Wonwoo scratched his ear.

“Me neither. I think you’ll get in though,” he smiled.

Wonwoo had to look away from the guy for a second, “you’ve never even heard me play.”

“I’m being optimistic around here, okay?” 

“Guess we’re polar opposites.”

“You know what they say, opposites attract,” the guy cheekily said.

Wonwoo almost choked on his own spit. 

“Are you okay? Do you need water?” The guy said, alarmed.

“No…I’ll be…okay,” he managed to get out between wheezes. 

“Are you sure?” The guy looked like he was genuinely worried.

“Yeah, don’t worry about me,” Wonwoo finally managed to say.

“What’s your name?” 

“Jeon Wonwoo, yours?”

“Wen Junhui but you can just call me Jun.”

Ah, so the stranger officially has a name. 

“I got to go catch my bus! See you later Wonwoo!” Jun waved as he jogged away.

Wonwoo looked at the time, fuck. He had a very good chance that he missed his own bus. He ran off to his bus stop and just as he got there, he saw his bus turn away at the stop sign. Wonwoo cussed some more under his breath.

Just his luck, he thought. He got so distracted by Jun that he forgot about his bus. Sighing, he went back inside the building, pulled out his laptop and worked till he was able to board the next bus.

 

Wonwoo walked in to see Jihoon and Soonyoung lounging in the living room.

“Late again?” Jihoon asked.

“Shut up,” Wonwoo scowled.

“Oooh Wonwoo’s in a pissy mood today. What got stuck up your ass?” Soonyoung pestered.

“Your annoying ass personality,” Wonwoo replied, searching the fridge for leftovers.

He heard an “ooo burn” from Jihoon.

“I guess Wonwoo doesn’t deserve the takeout,” Soonyoung drawled.

That made Wonwoo walk over to the living room. Indeed, there was a bag of takeout by Soonyoung. He made a lunge to grab it but Soonyoung reached it before.

“You know Wonwoo, you’ve been awfully mean to me lately,” Soonyoung eyed the bag, “it’d be a shame if I ate this, wouldn’t it?”

Wonwoo had two decisions, order takeout himself and put another dent in his bank account, or apologize to Soonyoung. The latter was much more uninviting. However, Wonwoo was also broke as fuck.

“Soonyoung, I was just not feeling so good after missing the bus,” Wonwoo paused.

Soonyoung raised both his eyebrows.

“And… it wasn’t right for me to take it out on you,” he breathed in.

Wonwoo knew what Soonyoung wanted him to say.

“I’m…uh…sorry Soonyoung for ruining your good mood,” and here comes the most dreaded part, “you’re always so nice to me and you don’t deserve the mean comments. Please forgive me Soonyoung.”

Soonyoung still eyed the bag, “I don’t know Wonwoo, I don’t think that sounds sincere enough.”

“Please, Soonyoung. I just want food,” Wonwoo almost begged.

Soonyoung rolled his eyes, “here you go. Next time you need to say more nice things about me.”

Wonwoo grabbed the bag out of Soonyoung’s hands faster than he could say “Soonyoung is a dick”. Takeout was wings and a salad today.

“Someone’s trying to be healthy,” Wonwoo commented.

“Yeah well not everyone is naturally as thin as you are,” Soonyoung said.

“Soonyoung’s trying to limit his junk food intake,” Jihoon told Wonwoo, “‘trying’ is the keyword.”

“I only had two wings!” Soonyoung cried.

Nobody believed him.

“Okay, maybe it was five but I had a salad to balance it out!”

“That’s like taking one step forward and one step back,” Wonwoo munched on his food.

“Watch me, I’ll be more fit and healthier than all of you,” Soonyoung glared at them.

“We’ll be watching,” Jihoon replied, “you eat all the junk food that is.”

“I get no respect in this house,” Soonyoung muttered angrily.

Wonwoo ignored Soonyoung and continued to finish the takeout. He sighed at the amount of work that he had to do after.

 

 

Four hours has passed since he came back. After he was done eating he enjoyed a quick drama with Soonyoung and Jihoon before going off to study. His eyes hurt from squinting at the screen for over three hours.

Wonwoo got up and went to the fridge to search for a yogurt. Their fridge was empty besides a carton of eggs, bread, drinks, yogurt, and a container of blueberries. That’s what happens when you put three dudes who can’t cook in one apartment, he chuckled.

Their alcohol cabinet, on the other hand, was quite full. Wonwoo stared longingly at the cans of beer. He so wished the weekend would come sooner.

He checked his email and a new one had popped up. It was addressed by Pledis Symphony. Wonwoo was scared that he wouldn’t have made it.

**Email**

**To: Jeon Wonwoo**

**Subject: Audition**

****Hello Mr. Jeon,

 

Congratulations on making it into Pledis Symphony. You played very well in your audition.

 

The audition for violin seating will be this Saturday. Practices will be on Tuesdays and

Saturdays 2pm to 4:30pm. However, we expect you to practice the pieces at least four times a week.

 

Please reply to this email to confirm your spot at Pledis Symphony.

 

With regards,

 

****Park Joohyeon

**Pledis Symphony**

Wonwoo whispered-screamed “yes!” when he saw the first sentence. He was so happy that he did a little mini dance. All his hard work finally paid off.

He whipped out his phone and sent a message.

**Group chat: HoT BOY At 12 O’CoCk**

**thewonandonly:** I MADE IT INTO PLEDIS SYMPHONY

( **read by hoeshi)**

****“Congrats!!” Soonyoung yelled from his room.

“Thank you!!” Wonwoo yelled back.

With that, Wonwoo happily set back to finishing his work. At the back of his mind, however, he wondered if Jun had also made it in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooo thank you for all the support given last chapter! I'm really happy that you're enjoying it so far ><
> 
> I plan on updating two chapters a week now so look forward to them <3 
> 
> Have a bootiful day!


	3. Double Violin Concerto in D Minor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wonwoo goes out with Soonyoung and Jihoon.

Wonwoo was finally done his last lecture of the week. He already planned a night out with Soonyoung and Jihoon. They’re going to go to their usual bar to grab a few drinks before heading out to the club. 

Normally, Wonwoo would decline and stay at their apartment, but Wonwoo just wanted to forget to about school for the rest of the night. It probably isn’t the best idea either since his seating audition is tomorrow. 

 

Today was a rare occasion it seemed, Wonwoo was the first one back. There was always either a Jihoon or a Soonyoung or both of them at the apartment by the time that Wonwoo got there. 

Wonwoo took that rare occasion to clean the apartment. He vacuumed, swept the floors, and took out the trash. He didn’t do a great job at it but it was better than nothing. 

The door opened and a yawning Jihoon came in.

“Hey,” Wonwoo said.

“Hey,” Jihoon replied, sleepily. 

He didn’t want to bother Jihoon because he knew that Jihoon was probably twice as tired as he is. Thus, Wonwoo started working on revising the notes from the past lectures. It was tedious but having it done meant one less thing to do on the weekend. 

Once again, the door opened and revealed a messy haired Soonyoung.

“The first week of uni is finally over!” Soonyoung exclaimed.

“Yeah, I’m so happy,” Wonwoo nodded.

“Where’s Jihoon?” Soonyoung asked.

Wonwoo nodded towards Jihoon’s bedroom, “I think he’s sleeping.”

“Knowing him he’s probably working on composing another song. Boy hardly ever gets sleep.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” he sighed.

Jihoon worked the hardest out of all of them so it obviously meant that he got the least amount of sleep. Wonwoo doesn’t know how Jihoon is able to pull off weeks with less than four hours of sleep. He felt bad for him.

Soonyoung left to probably go check up on Jihoon, Wonwoo thought, and he continued revising. What seemed like an eternity later, Wonwoo was finally done. He checked the time, it was 6:30, and wondered if they should go out now.

He walked over to Soonyoung’s bedroom and knocked. 

“Yeah?” Soonyoung’s voice came through the closed door.

“Do you want to go out now?” Wonwoo opened the door and stepped in.

Soonyoung’s room was a mess, there were clothes and notes thrown all over the floor, very much like Wonwoo’s room.

“Uh, yeah sure. Just give me twenty minutes, I’m almost done with this,” he pointed at his computer. 

“No problem, I’ll go check up on Jihoon now,” Wonwoo smiled.

Wonwoo left Soonyoung’s room and went to knock on Jihoon’s. 

A tired voice came through, “what do you need?”

“We’re leaving in twenty minutes,” Wonwoo said.

“Sounds good,” Jihoon yawned.

Wonwoo went back into his own room and changed into a new pair of clothes. His sweats and sweater on the floor somewhere. He went and picked up his violin case, he really should be practicing tonight. 

He set it back down though, tonight is meant to celebrate surviving the first week of uni. He sat on his bed, thinking. Wonwoo couldn’t believe that in next February, he’d be done with university. Well…that is his bachelor’s per say. He’s contemplating on whether he wants to become a music teacher.

When Wonwoo was a child, he loved to write books. His dream profession was to become a writer. His parents didn’t approve though since a writer wouldn’t have a stable income. So, Wonwoo asked if he could become a musician. 

They were fine with him becoming a musician. From that day forward, Wonwoo became more involved with music. He started to learn the violin and flute. The violin was his favourite because of its sound and how rewarding it was when he didn’t squeak, or such. 

Wonwoo shook his head. His dreams of becoming a writer are long gone now. Besides, he loves playing the violin. 

He went out his room to go to the washroom. Wonwoo saw Jihoon waiting out on the couch. Once he was done, he joined Jihoon.

“Were you able to take a nap?” He asked.

“Yeah, I feel somewhat less tired now,” Jihoon replied.

“Good because we’re going to have to run off to the bus now!” Soonyoung walked out of his room.

“What?” Wonwoo and Jihoon both looked at Soonyoung.

“You heard me right. The next bus won’t come till another hour later, so chop chop,” Soonyoung grinned, while putting on his shoes.

Wonwoo rolled his eyes, and Jihoon muttered some curses at Soonyoung. 

The three jogged all the way to the bus stop by their apartment. If they arrived a minute later, they would probably be waiting around for another hour.

Wonwoo ignored the other two and listened to Double Violin Concerto in D Minor by J.S. Bach. The piece was composed during the Baroque time period, and it reminded Wonwoo of when he was younger and read in the shadows by their oak tree. He missed the times when his only worries were if the characters in the book that he was reading would die.

Sighing, he continued to hear the piece through his earbuds. 

 

The bus lurched to a stop and Wonwoo, Soonyoung, and Jihoon hopped off. The forty minute bus ride to Gangnam had made all of them tired and sleepy. In the corner of his eye, he saw Jihoon yawn. 

“Time to eat, finally,” Soonyoung said, cheerfully. 

“I’m absolutely starving,” Wonwoo’s stomach grumbled.

“I think we all are,” a tired Jihoon said.

“Okay, do you guys want to go to a buffet?” Soonyoung asked.

“Sounds good to me,” Wonwoo answered.

Jihoon nodded his head in agreement.

They ate at an all-you-can-eat Korean buffet. Wonwoo got some bulgogi, gimbap, and some spicy noodles. He felt way more energetic after eating.

“Look at these desserts!” Soonyoung squealed.

“Aren’t you going on a diet?” Wonwoo raised an eyebrow.

Soonyoung dropped the chopsticks, then lifted them up again and put a piece of cake on his plate, “today’s my cheat day.”

“Everyday is your cheat day,” Jihoon stated.

Soonyoung didn’t bother to reply and scooped up more desserts on his plate. Wonwoo picked up a rice cake and biscuit. He wasn’t a big fan of desserts.

After they all finished eating, they left to go to a club. It was almost 9pm when they left. 

“We’ve still got an hour to kill before the clubs open up,” Jihoon said.

“Want to go do some karaoke?” Soonyoung suggested.

Wonwoo didn’t really care, and thus, they were on their way to karaoke. He wasn’t the best singer, but he wasn’t completely terrible either. Average, he would say.

“Oh my god! Gashina is playing!” Soonyoung jumped up and down.

Soonyoung was a huge fan of Sunmi. Wonwoo heard him sing to Gashina and Heroine so many times that he doesn’t even keep count anymore. 

Soonyoung immediately grabbed a mic and sang. Both Wonwoo and Jihoon laughed at Soonyoung’s inability to hit the high notes. Soonyoung ignored them and sang till the song ended. 

Next was Wonwoo’s turn. He picked Bboom Bboom to sing along to. As he was singing, he saw a group of guys walk in. Look who’s here, he thought, eyeing the man with the auburn hair by the doors.

When he ended, Soonyoung cheered for him. Wonwoo did an over exaggerated bow and mimicked, “thank you, thank you.”

He sat down at their table, and in the corner of his eye, he saw the other group sitting down two tables away. 

“Jihoon?” Soonyoung looked at Jihoon and then to the stage.

“Watch me sing peasants,” Jihoon stated.

Wonwoo and Soonyoung both chuckled. Jihoon had a fairly good singing voice, and Wonwoo wasn’t surprised when he saw the other group clapping along.

“If I were your boyfriend…”

“I’d never let you go…”

He cheered Jihoon and laughed as he got a little red. Jihoon was the most musically talented out of all of them. Wonwoo was always amazed how he could play three instruments, sing, rap, dance, and compose music. 

As Jihoon was getting off the stage, a tall guy started walking towards him. Wonwoo eyed the tall guy and choked on his sprite when he realized who it was: Mingyu. Mingyu was friends with Jun?

Wonwoo could hear Mingyu’s loud, and sometimes obnoxious, voice from where he sat. He heard Mingyu saying how great Jihoon sounded and that they should hang out sometime. 

“Come on, Wonwoo, let’s go to them,” Soonyoung sat up and walked towards them.

Wonwoo saw no choice other than following Soonyoung, so he too got up and walked towards the tall and short one. 

“Hey, Mingyu,” Soonyoung waved.

Mingyu looked over at them, “oh hey!”

“Do you guys want to come for drinks with us after?” Soonyoung happily invited them.

Wonwoo and Jihoon both stared at Soonyoung. 

“Umm, I’m not sure. Let me ask Minghao and Jun,” Mingyu turned off and walked off to their table.

Wonwoo and Jihoon stared at one another as Soonyoung walked beside Mingyu. Their stares asked the question, “should we follow them or leave?”. They both just stood there, and it must have looked really awkward on the outside, Wonwoo spectated. 

Their distance was broken apart when Soonyoung yelled at them to come over. They both weren’t very excited at that idea, but they walked over anyway.

Wonwoo looked at their table, eyeing everyone except for the guy in his music composition class. 

“These two anti-social guys are Wonwoo,” Soonyoung pointed at him, “and Jihoon.” 

Sadly for him, he met Jun’s eyes. Jun smiled at him, while Wonwoo looked away. 

“Hi,” Wonwoo and Jihoon both said, unenthusiastically. 

“Did I not mention how lame they are?” Soonyoung rolled his eyes. 

They all looked towards Jun and the guy with the light brown hair beside him. The guy looked really skinny, like Wonwoo. 

“Hi,” Minghao said, looking bored.

“Minghao can be a dick at times,” Mingyu explained, “actually, most of the time.”

“Hello,” Jun smiled, shyly. 

“That’s Jun, he doesn’t bite, unlike someone else,” Mingyu glared at Minghao. 

Minghao muttered something at Mingyu that was most definitely not very nice.

“So when do you want to head to the club?” Mingyu asked Soonyoung.

Everyone looked at the two of them. 

“I think I’m feeling pretty tired,” Jihoon faked a yawn, “I’m going to head back to the apartment.”

Wonwoo stared daggers at Jihoon, he better not be leaving Wonwoo behind.

“Yeah, me too,” Wonwoo said, “I got to practice for violin seating tomorrow.”

Their attempted excuse for leaving does not fool Soonyoung.

“You guys were so excited about going earlier. Don’t abandon me now,” while Soonyoung may have sounded cute, he looked like he was going to murder either one of them if they decide to leave. 

They both looked at Soonyoung and then each other. Wonwoo was the first to mutter, “fine”. Followed closely by Jihoon.

Mingyu looked at Wonwoo and then at Jun, “are you guys in the same symphony? I remember Jun mentioning something about oboe seating.”

So Jun plays the oboe, Wonwoo thought, which made sense since he was carrying such a small case. He was surprised, however, that there was even oboe seating. Back when Wonwoo played in a youth symphony, they only had one oboe. Even at school, there was only a handful.

“Yeah, we’re both at Pledis symphony,” Jun answered.

“Oh, that’s great! It’s like we’re all connected!” Mingyu happily exclaimed.

“No, it’s called they both auditioned for the same symphony and made it in,” Minghao rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

“Let’s stop with all the bickering and go,” Soonyoung pointed at the doors. 

“We just got here!” Minghao sighed. 

“And now it’s time to go,” Soonyoung replied.

Minghao grumbled as he sat up from his seat. Jun, on the other hand, stood up without any complaining at all.

“I like you,” Soonyoung stated, looking at Jun, “you don’t complain.”

Minghao chose to ignore Soonyoung. Jun looked a little red in the face.

The men walked out of the karaoke room, it was starting to get crowded in there, and headed off to a club. Wonwoo didn’t know which one Soonyoung was going to pick, but he didn’t really care either. 

He walked behind the two blabber mouths, beside Jihoon and Jun. 

“So, uh, congratulations,” Jun said, awkwardly, to Wonwoo.

“For what?” Wonwoo looked confused.

“For making it into Pledis.”

“Oh, you too,” Wonwoo said.

He looked at Jun, he was too perfect looking to not have done something to his face. Wonwoo wasn’t a big fan of people who changed how they looked to appeal to a social norm. It made him ticked off and disappointed that they felt like they weren’t good enough, and the only way to be good enough was to get cut up.

“I can’t wait to hear you play the violin tomorrow,” Jun smiled.

“I’m not that good,” Wonwoo said, honestly.

“I highly doubt that.”

“Wonwoo’s pretty good at the violin,” Jihoon stared at the scenery.

“Wow, a compliment from Jihoon?” Wonwoo smirked.

“And the last you’ll ever hear from me.”

Jun laughed. Wonwoo thought that it wasn’t a bad sound. 

“Do you go to Seoul National Art University, too?” Jihoon asked Jun.

“Yeah, just transferred to there from Busan School of Arts,” Jun replied.

“Ah, so that’s why we’ve never seen you around.”

Jun nodded.

“Hey Wonwoo, didn’t you live in Busan?” Jihoon looked at him.

“No, Changwon,” Wonwoo corrected him.

“That’s still pretty close.”

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

The rest of the walk was silent. It wasn’t necessarily awkward either. 

Sometime later, they stopped at the opening to what looked like a high end club. 

“If the entrance fee is over 40,000₩ then I’m not going in,” a broke Wonwoo declared.

“Don’t worry, it’s not that expensive,” Soonyoung assured Wonwoo. 

“Just wait till we get there,” Jihoon said, annoyed at the long line.

By the time they finally got to the doors, it was already 10:20pm. They waited at least twenty minutes. Wonwoo, if he wasn’t out, would have been playing video games by now. This night better be worth it, he thought.

To Wonwoo’s surprise, it only cost 25,000₩ to go in. Wonwoo chuckled as Jihoon had to hand over his ID. 

“That’s what you get for being short,” Wonwoo teased.

Jihoon shot him a murderous look. Wonwoo was going to regret saying that soon.

The club was loud and full of drunk people, like every other one. He lost sight of Soonyoung, Mingyu, and Minghao in under five minutes. 

“I don’t really do this type of thing!” Jun yelled at Wonwoo and Jihoon.

“It’s fine! We’re just going to get drinks!” Jihoon reassured him.

They walked together over to the bar. Wonwoo ordered three shots of soju for them. He didn’t know Jun’s birthday so he asked him.

“My birthday is in June!” He replied. 

So, he was older than both Jihoon and him. They took their shots and ordered another one, and downed it again. It burned his mouth and throat, working its way into his bloodstream. Wonwoo wasn’t the biggest fan of soju but it made getting drunk way faster.

“Another one!” Jihoon called the bartender.

After their third shot, Wonwoo could feel himself loosening up a bit. 

“I can’t really hold my liquor,” Jun stated, red in the face from the shots.

“It’s okay, neither can Jihoon,” Wonwoo replied. 

That earned him a punch from Jihoon. They continued to drink, thankfully not soju, and with every glass, Wonwoo talked more and more. Alcohol made Wonwoo talkative. 

“So that’s how I now have a smiley face tattooed on my ass,” Wonwoo told Jun the story of one drunk night with Soonyoung.

Jun giggled at the thought of a smiley face on Wonwoo’s ass. 

“Drink up!” Jihoon brought over another shot glass for everyone.

Wonwoo couldn’t even feel the burning sensation anymore as he swallowed the alcohol. He doesn’t know how much time has passed but he definitely has told Jun more than five stories. 

The night blurred as the shots and glasses of alcohol started piling more and more up. He was telling Jun a story of Soonyoung getting so drunk he started making out with his glass, and then he was laughing along to something stupid Jun said.

Towards the end of the night, when everyone was sleepy, they called a cab to take them home. Wonwoo, Jun, and Jihoon were giggling together in the cab as they were getting driven back to Wonwoo and Jihoon’s apartment. 

Wonwoo and Jihoon got out of the cab, said something to Jun about how they should go to another club soon, and the cab drove off to Jun’s apartment.

Wonwoo had his arms around Jihoon and they drunkenly walked to the elevator.

“Look at all these buttons,” said Jihoon, pressing all of them.

Wonwoo laughed. They both got off at floor seven and laughed all the way to their door. Wonwoo tried to get his key in the door with no success. Jihoon snatched the key away and kept stabbing the key towards the door till it got in. 

He twisted the doorknob and two happily drunk men walked in. They dropped all of their shit on the floor, not bothering to put them away.

Wonwoo got some water for both of them, thinking that it might be a good idea, only to find that Jihoon collapsed on the coach. Thus, Wonwoo drank both of the glasses by himself. He walked over to his room, landed on his bed, and it was lights out for him.

He dreamed of oboes making laughing sounds when they were played, instead of the high pitched sounds they usually made. It was weird.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was not supposed to be all about the night out. I planned on writing about seating day but got carried away with the boys night out. 
> 
> Next chapter will be Wonwoo and Jun auditioning for seating!


	4. Summer No.2 in G Minor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wonwoo goes to seating and gets an unexpectedly delicious meal.

Wonwoo woke up with a massive headache and the horrible taste of bile rising up. He rushed to the toilet and puked everything out. He felt like shit.   
The whole world spun as Wonwoo got up to flush the toilet. He rinsed his mouth with mouthwash at least three times. It felt like somebody was smashing a hammer on Wonwoo’s skull.   
He walked over to the cabinet where they kept all the medicine, downed two Advils, and climbed back into bed. The pain slowly numbed and he slowly fell asleep with it.

The glare of the sun woke Wonwoo up. His headache had come back with vengeance. Wonwoo groaned. He cursed himself mentally for drinking so much.  
Memories of last night stopped when they arrived at the club. Wonwoo remembered doing karaoke and walking with a bunch of people. Everything else was a blur.   
He reached for his phone, only to find that it wasn’t stationed at his nightstand. Wonwoo squinted his eyes, cursing the sun for how bright it was, and got up. Pain shot up through his nerves and he felt extremely dizzy.   
He tried to run to the bathroom, barely made it on time, and puked. There wasn’t much, Wonwoo thought he probably already puked. What time was it?   
He flushed the toilet and, slowly, made his way into the kitchen. There he saw a Jihoon crashed on the couch and Soonyoung sleeping on the carpet. They were all fucked.   
After one more advil and some vitamins were downed, Wonwoo boiled some water in preparation for tea. He wasn’t sure if he could handle any food right now. Wonwoo finally looked at the time and saw that it was 11:27am.   
What did he have to do again today? He knew there was something planned today, he just couldn’t remember what it was. Where was his phone?   
Wonwoo didn’t want to move but he knew he had to solve those questions. He walked back to his room and searched for it, but found nothing. He went to the living room, careful not to wake anyone up, but still no phone.   
He had a fleeting thought of losing it till he saw something by their door. He trod over to discover his phone, wallet, and a pair of glasses. His glasses were thankfully not broken and everything else looked to be fine.   
Wonwoo turned on his phone to see a notification for Pledis symphony. Oh fuck, he thought. There was violin seating today. Panic set in as Wonwoo checked the time that he had to be in by: 2pm.   
That left him an hour and a half to get ready. He barely had practiced a piece. At least he knew that he was most likely going to be put into second. On any other day when his head wasn’t pounding, he would have been greatly upset by it, but today was an exception.  
He had no desire to practice as it would probably lead to his head exploding. Plus, everybody else was still asleep. With a sigh, he tried to accept his fate. Playing second violin wasn’t necessary bad but, to Wonwoo, it wasn’t necessarily great either like playing first violin.   
A “click” noise went off and Wonwoo knew that his water was done. He grabbed a cup from the cupboard, a green tea bag, and some honey. After he was done making his tea, he treaded back to his room.   
The idea of waking up his roommates didn’t sound very appealing to him. He would rather them get more sleep and then feel like shit, instead of getting less sleep and still feeling like shit.   
Sitting down on his chair, he tried to collect some more memories from last night. He thought he saw Jun with Mingyu, but Wonwoo highly doubted that. The pounding headache, nausea, and loss of memories made Wonwoo want to steer away from alcohol for a while.  
He stared at his violin case, he should really be practicing. Sighing, Wonwoo gave in to the thought of failure. He gulped down his tea before he walked back into the kitchen and made two glasses of tea for Soonyoung and Jihoon, placed them on the coffee table, and went back into his room.   
Wonwoo quickly showered and changed into a new pair of clothes that didn’t reek of alcohol. He stuffed his backpack with music sheets and a collapsible music stand, and grabbed his violin case.   
He walked up the stairs to the roof. Practicing on the roof was not an ideal situation at all. Usually, it was windy and it would cause all his music to fly around. Desperate times call for desperate measures though.  
If Soonyoung and Jihoon weren’t home, Wonwoo would practice in their apartment. If they were there, he’d go to a studio at school to practice. The days that Wonwoo would practice on the roof are the days where he doesn’t have enough time to commute to the studio.  
The days were getting warmer so it wasn’t too chilly outside but there was a fair amount of wind. Wonwoo got out his stand, music sheets, and violin out. He started with tuning his violin and doing all the scales for a warm up. At first, it hurt hearing him play and made his headache worse but with time it slowly got better.  
When he was done warm-ups, he played a little part of his all-time favourite piece: Four Seasons by Vivaldi. He did a couple minutes of Summer No.2 in G Minor. Wonwoo just played that to try and start off on a more satisfied tone. It told him that he could at least accomplish something.  
Then, it was time to move on the actual required music. He flipped through all the music sheets to find one that he will play for the seating. He wanted one that showed him being an all around good violinist.  
He decided to play the Allegro movement of Violin Concerto Opus 8 by Strauss. Wonwoo played it a couple times in third year of uni. It showed that he could be with the first violinists. He just hoped that he wouldn’t screw it up too badly.  
Wonwoo practiced that for almost an hour. He checked his phone, it was 12:34pm. He needed to leave at 1:10pm. He decided that he had enough time to go through the piece one more time. It wasn’t going to become perfection but Wonwoo managed to make the best out of it.  
When it read 12:50pm, Wonwoo put everything back and headed back inside. He didn’t realize how cold he was till the warmth from the building hit him. Too bad he had to go out soon again.  
Two tired faces met Wonwoo as he entered the apartment.  
“Wow, do we all look like shit,” Wonwoo commented.  
“Yeah,” Soonyoung replied.  
When all Soonyoung could say was a “yeah”, Wonwoo knew that Soonyoung was feeling like shit. Jihoon never bothered to reply.  
It probably was not the best idea to take more advil but Wonwoo knew he would need it for violin seating. There was only a handful of advil left after. He should go to the pharmacy to buy some more.   
“I’ll be back around 5:15pm. I’ll bring back some food,” he announced.  
He heard a half-hearted, “okay,” from Soonyoung and still nothing from Jihoon. Wonwoo was about to open the door to go out again till he heard Jihoon speak.  
“Can you bring us some smoothies?” Jihoon asked in a tired voice.  
“Will do,” Wonwoo said.  
He left the apartment to take the bus to the Pledis building.

By the time that Wonwoo arrived, he had ten minutes to spare. The building itself looked newly renovated and in good shape. Pledis symphony was a new thing so Wonwoo wasn’t surprised at the nice building.  
He walked through the hallway looking for the practice room. He wasn’t exactly sure of where to go. Luckily, he spotted someone at the end of the hallway.  
Wonwoo went up to ask her about where to go, “hello, sorry to bother you, but could you lead me to where the practice room for Pledis symphony is?”  
The woman turned around. She looked to be around Wonwoo’s age.  
“Yeah, that’s what I’m looking for too. I think it’s upstairs,” she replied.  
“Nice to meet you, I’m Wonwoo and I play the violin,” he introduced himself.  
“Moonbyul, and I also play the violin,” Moonbyul smiled.  
“Good luck for seating then. You’ll do great.”  
“You too.”  
They walked in silence looking for the room. Both of them knew they were in the right place when they could hear the sounds of several instruments warming up. Wonwoo and Moonbyul entered a fairly large sized room and saw many people play with their respective instruments.  
He didn’t know where to sit since he wasn’t friends with anyone here. He guessed that Moonbyul, too, felt the same as she paused.  
“Do you want to sit together?” Wonwoo asked.  
“Sure, I don’t really know anyone here besides you,” Moonbyul agreed.  
They walked over to where the violinists were and grabbed two chairs to put down. After that, Wonwoo eyed the room. He saw many different people, but one caught his eye; it was Jun.  
He was tuning up his oboe, or at least that’s what Wonwoo thought he was doing. The oboe was far from Wonwoo’s expertise. He turned away to focus on tuning his own instrument.  
A couple of minutes after, a man walked in. Wonwoo guessed that he was the conductor. Everyone went quiet when he arrived.  
The man smiled at everyone, “hello! I am Han Seongsu, your conductor.”  
Everybody said, “hello,” back.  
“I believe you guys are all here for seating. I hope you all have a five minute piece prepared for me. Since we don’t have much time, I expect the cellos to meet me in the far left room in ten minutes,” and with that Mr. Han walked away.  
Murmurs broke throughout the room.  
“Wow, that was short and quick,” Moonbyul commented.  
“He’s quick and to the point,” Wonwoo replied.  
“Yeah, I highly doubt he tolerates anything that isn’t perfection,” the guy beside him said.  
Wonwoo looked over. The guy wasn’t bad looking, but he wasn’t good looking either. He had dyed his hair a light brown and wore round glasses.   
“That’s everyone in the music industry,” Wonwoo stated.  
“You betcha.”  
For the rest of the time, as he was waiting for his section’s turn for seating, he practiced his piece. It was hard when there were at least twenty others in the room all playing. At least his headache was gone now.  
“The violins are to go now,” a person from the viola section announced.   
Wonwoo sighed. He picked up his music sheets and headed with the rest of the violins to the room. He noticed Jun giving him a thumbs up and nodded towards him.   
The room that they arrived to was smaller than their other practice room but definitely far from small. He took a seat beside Moonbyul while waiting for Mr. Han to give further instructions.  
“Okay, whoever is auditioning for first violin please sit in the front row,” Mr. Han told them.  
Wonwoo stayed in the same spot, so did Moonbyul.   
“Now, I would like one person at a time from left to right to play their piece starting from the first row. Also, introduce yourself and the piece before playing.”  
“Lee Mark and I’ll be playing La Folia from Corelli’s Violin Sonata in D Minor,” said the guy two chairs away from Wonwoo.   
The Mark guy played very well, he thought. Wonwoo could not hear any stumbles or off notes. It flowed very well. It was going to be hard to beat him.   
The other person beside him, Seo Youngho, played very smoothly as well. Wonwoo saw Mr. Han write some notes as each person was playing. He hoped that he wouldn’t fuck up so badly.  
By the time it was his turn, Wonwoo was very nervous. He still managed somehow to speak coherently though.  
“Jeon Wonwoo and I’ll be playing the Allegro movement of Violin Concerto Opus 8 by Strauss.”  
He breathed in, positioned his bow, and drawn it. Wonwoo’s jitters slowly worn off as he played more and more. He didn’t focus on anything but playing the piece. Wonwoo almost slipped up a few times, he just hoped that it wasn’t too noticeable.  
When he put his bow down, Mr. Han signalled that it was Moonbyul’s turn. He didn’t bother to provide any of them with comments.  
She introduced herself and that she was playing Stravinsky’s violin concerto in D major. Wonwoo couldn’t help but be amazed by her skills. Not only did she play everything so smoothly, every staccato was short and sharp, every slur was played perfectly, and everything sounded amazing.  
Wonwoo felt like such a terrible violinist beside her. He felt like he shouldn’t be here besides all these amazing violinists. Why did he play the violin again? He doesn’t remember why.  
He waited as all the other violinists played their piece. With each new person playing, Wonwoo saw how much more passionate and talented they were compared to him.   
Eventually, it was over with. They were dismissed and told to call the oboes in. Wonwoo had never felt so relieved till then. He could finally go back to the apartment. His head started to pound again.  
Wonwoo saw that Jun was already ready with his oboe and music sheets. To repay the favour, he gave a thumbs up. Jun smiled at him. It made Wonwoo feel somewhat better.  
“Everyone is so good here,” Moonbyul said to him.  
“You were great,” Wonwoo said, a hundred percent honest. “I was so amazed when you played.”  
She blushed, “thank you but I’m not that good.”  
He scoffed, “oh please, even the conductor stopped taking notes to watch you play.”  
Wonwoo saw Moonbyul wave it off. He continued to pack up his stuff since the violins were done for the day. Once he was done, he started to head off.   
However, he heard a certain someone to wait for him. Wonwoo turned his head around to see Jun and the other oboe player.   
“Hey, I’m done. Do you mind waiting for me?” Jun asked him.  
Wonwoo didn’t really want to talk to anyone but he still agreed to wait for him. After Jun was done, they walked out the building.  
“How did seating go for you?” Jun wondered.  
“It was fine,” he replied, wanting to end this conversation.  
“Really? I think you did really well,” Jun beamed at him.  
“You didn’t hear me play,” Wonwoo said, briskly.   
“Well, I have hope for everyone.”  
“You’re optimistic.”  
“You could say that. Where are you heading?”   
Wonwoo wasn’t very familiar with this area of Seoul, “I’m trying to find a restaurant that might help with the massive hangover my friends and I have.”  
“Aah, I know a place near here,” Jun said.  
“Do you live around here?” Wonwoo inquired.  
Jun walked beside him, “I live about ten minutes away. I usually come over here to have some soup.”  
“Soup sounds great,” said a hungry Wonwoo.  
He followed Jun for a while, crossing streets and passing by many places he never ever stepped foot in. They eventually stopped in front of an old looking Korean restaurant.   
“The people here are really nice, and the soups are the best,” Jun announced.  
“Oh really?” Wonwoo eyed the place.  
The outside looked old and kind of shabby but on the inside, the atmosphere was very much so different. The place was lightly lit by lights hanging from the ceiling. The walls were brick and reminded Wonwoo of the first apartment he rented with Jihoon and Soonyoung.   
Jun bowed in front of a person, presumably the chef, and Wonwoo followed shortly.   
“Look, if it isn’t my favourite customer!” The woman greeted. “Who did you bring this time?”  
“This is Wonwoo, we just came back from our seating audition for Pledis symphony,” Jun replied.  
“Sit down young sir, and I’ll make you the best kimchi soup you’ll ever taste in your lifetime,” the woman pointed toward a table.  
Wonwoo bowed and sat down. He looked at the menu. He saw a lot of varied types of meals. However, the soups caught his eye the most.  
“They look so good, right?” Jun said, looking at his own menu.  
“Hm, what?” Wonwoo asked, a bit confused.  
“The soups.”  
“Yeah, they do. I won’t doubt her soup.”  
When the waiter came over, Wonwoo ordered a coke and before he could say anything else, Jun interrupted. He told the waiter that they were both having one of Miss Lee’s kimchi soups with some pollock pancakes.  
Wonwoo looked at Jun, “thanks.”  
“No problem,” Jun replied.  
He didn’t realize before how awkward it was going to be. Sighing, he took a sip of his   
coke.  
“Last night was wild.”  
“It was?” Wonwoo hardly had any recollection of what happened.  
Jun looked at him questioningly, “do you not remember?”  
“No,” Wonwoo replied sheepishly.   
“Let’s get to know each other,” Jun said, switching topics.  
“Sure,” Wonwoo agreed.  
“Instruments you play?”   
“Violin and flute but I mostly just play the violin now,” Wonwoo answered, he didn’t have time to play the flute anymore. “You?” “Oboe, piano, and cello. I’m not very good at the cello though.”  
“I doubt that. What are you studying?”  
“I’m majoring in music with a minor in theatre,” Jun thanked the waiter for bringing the pancakes.  
Wonwoo’s stomach grumbled as he eyed the pancakes, “I used to major in music before switching to composition. I minor in literature.”  
“You do seem like the writer type,” Jun commented. “what do you do in your free time?” “What free time?” Wonwoo joked, it earned a light chuckle from Jun. “Mostly write or read.”  
“I usually practice some more on either the cello, piano, or oboe. Or, I like to walk around Seoul finding the best places to eat.”  
“Food is always a great option. If you could go anywhere, where would it be?”  
“I’ve always wanted to go tour around Europe. Depending on how much we would get from the symphony, I might actually do it when uni ends.”  
“Ah, yes, I’ve never been to Europe before. It’d be a cool place to visit. Plus, all the countries are rather small. It would be easy to tour a couple countries in one go,” Wonwoo said.  
“Maybe we should do it together.”  
Wonwoo eyed Jun, wondering if he was joking or not. Jun wasn’t smiling or anything. So, he was being serious.   
“Maybe,” he replied, but he wasn’t sure if he actually liked the idea or not.  
By that time, their soup had already arrived. Wonwoo took a sip, it was absolutely delicious. It was a bit spicy, but the kimchi was one of the best that he’s ever had.  
“Wow, you know, you might actually be right. This might be one of the best kimchi soups I’ve ever had,” Wonwoo was impressed by how much he was enjoying it.  
“Miss Lee is the best at making kimchi soup. When I first arrived here, I’d hit this place up at least four days out of seven,” Jun said, slurping his own soup.  
“Why did you decide to move to Seoul?” Wonwoo asked.  
Jun paused, “I…would rather not answer this…maybe another day.”  
Wonwoo looked at him. Jun was purposefully avoiding eye contact. He didn’t want to push him to tell since he wanted to respect his decision. Plus, they hardly were close.  
“That’s fine, don’t worry about it.”  
What Wonwoo said seemed to be a mood kill for Jun. They ate the rest of their food in silence. Wonwoo felt bad for asking about it now as Jun went from chirpy and happy to silent and depressed.   
“Hey, you alright?” Wonwoo asked.   
“Yeah,” Jun tried to smile, “just remembering some stuff that I’d rather not.”  
“I’m sorry for asking, I didn’t know it would put you in a bad mood,” Wonwoo was truly apologetic.  
“It’s okay, you didn’t know,” Jun reassured him.  
They were done their meals by that time. Wonwoo decided that he’d bring some kimchi soup back home. When the waiter came, Wonwoo asked for two bowls of kimchi soup as takeout.   
“I’ll pay the bill,” Wonwoo told Jun.  
“No, I will,” Jun shot a glare at him.   
“Fine, we’ll split it,” Wonwoo didn’t want to get into any stupid arguments with Jun.  
“Fine.”  
They split the cost of their meals and headed out together. It was way more chilly outside, Wonwoo regretted not bringing some mitts.   
“I guess this is where we split off,” Jun looked at Wonwoo.  
“Yeah,” he replied.  
“We should eat out more often.”  
“I agree,” Wonwoo turned out to like eating with Jun more than he thought he would.  
“What’s your number?” Jun whipped out his phone.  
Jun took Wonwoo’s takeout bag from him and handed over his phone. Wonwoo put in his number under the name “Your Favourite Violinist”. Jun chuckled when he read what Wonwoo had put himself under.   
“You wish,” he replied.  
Wonwoo laughed. With that, they split apart. Wonwoo took the bus back to their apartment. He bought three smoothies before going back.   
The warmth greeted Wonwoo as he stepped inside the building. By the time that he was on their apartment floor, his fingers had started to gain some more feeling in them.   
“You’re back,” Soonyoung greeted him when he walked in.  
“Yep, brought some soup and smoothies,” Wonwoo put those bags on the counter.  
“Thanks, Wonwoo, you’re a lifesaver. Jihoon’s in his room so bring him over,” Soonyoung grinned.  
Together, Soonyoung and Jihoon ate their soup while Wonwoo finished his smoothie. They chitchatted over some stuff like how shit their hangover was and still is. Wonwoo retreated into his room when he remembered how much work he had to finish.  
He studied and worked for the rest of the night. His mind occasionally went back to Jun and the restaurant. Wonwoo made a mental note to eat there again.   
It wasn’t a bad day, he thought. His phone buzzed.  
Unknown Number: Good night my not so favourite violinist.  
Wonwoo chuckled lightly. He changed the name of the sender.  
My Favourite Violinist: Good night to my not so favourite oboist.   
My Not So Favourite Oboist:

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> March Break has started for me so expect more updates! 
> 
> Hope you're having an amazing day!


	5. Gabriel's Oboe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wonwoo and Jun talk about their childhoods and eat lots of great food.

It was Tuesday and that meant Wonwoo had symphony rehearsal. He still hasn't heard back from what seat he is in but he guessed that it’ll be posted today. He doesn’t think that he made it into the first violins since there were so many good violinists.

The cloudy winter day greeted him as he waited for the bus. Spring was coming, or at least Wonwoo hoped so. It’s not like he didn’t like winter, he was excited for when winter was coming. It’s just that Wonwoo has gotten over the excitement of the first few weeks of winter.

When the bus came, Wonwoo hopped on to the overcrowded bus. He looked out the window and thought about his life so far. It wasn’t bad, nor was it really good either. He didn’t exactly know what to do with his life after uni. Would he stay with Pledis or audition for a bigger symphony orchestra? Does he even want to play the violin?

Wonwoo shook that idea out of his head. He loves the violin and wants to play it, he told himself. Even if he didn’t enjoy it he would still be stuck with it. Wonwoo had nothing else going for him besides music.

Sighing, he reminisced about his past. When he was a kid, he loved to read and write. However, his parents didn’t approve of that so Wonwoo got another hobby: music. When he told his parents that he wanted to pursue music, they actually approved of it. Thus, Wonwoo gave away his life to play the violin and flute.

 

He opened the glass door to the building, it was a nice change to the cloudy and cold weather outside. Wonwoo passed by a few musicians as he walked to the room. He put his coat on the back of the chair and unpacked his violin.

He started with tuning his violin and then the scales for warmup. There was still no sign of Jun or Moonbyul, but Wonwoo was twenty minutes early. Time passed on as Wonwoo finished his warmups and started practicing the pieces.

Someone tapped Wonwoo on the shoulder. He stopped playing and looked up to the face of the one and only Wen Junhui.

“Hey,” Wonwoo said.

“Hey,” Jun replied, looking down at him.

“Do you know what you got for seating?” He asked.

“Yeah, it’s posted outside. I can show you, come.”

Wonwoo followed Jun to where the seating results were. It was on the bullet board by the main entrance. How did he not notice it? He searched for his section then his name on the paper.

 _Violin_  
_Jeon Wonwoo: Principal Second Violin_

Wonwoo let his disappointment show for a second before turning back into his neutral face.

“Congratulations!” Jun clapped for him.

Wonwoo forced a smile on himself, “thanks, Jun.”

Jun looked at him questioningly, “are you not happy about it?”

“Don’t worry, I am happy about it,” Wonwoo made an effort to grin.

“I’ll have you know that the principal second violins are one of the best violinists in the orchestra.”

“Yeah, I know. Let’s go back now, we have five minutes left.”

“If you must say so, but you should still be happy about it!” Jun walked beside him on the way back.

“I am happy,” Wonwoo said back.

Jun decided to not press the situation further as of right now. They returned to their respective seats once back in the room.

Wonwoo wasn’t really surprised that he got second. He didn’t prepare much for his piece and was much poorer in performance compared to the other violinists that auditioned for first. He’ll practice harder now.

“What did you get for seating?” Moonbyul greeted him as he sat down.

“Principal second violin, you?” Wonwoo made sure to not look disappointed.

“Concertmaster,” she grinned.

“Congrats! I knew you would get it. You played absolutely phenomenal on Sunday,” he swallowed the pit of envy, but he was still happy for her.

“Ah, thanks. Congrats on your place too! We’re the two best violinists so far.”

What she forgot to mention was that she was the better one out of the two of them, Wonwoo thought. He cleared his thoughts, he didn’t want to sound petty since principal second violin was a really good seat. Just not good enough.

 

Practice was over, Wonwoo’s arm cramped and his neck was sore. He did some stretches for his neck to help relieve the pain. Now, he had to finish up an essay for his musical history class, do composition homework, and practice all the other pieces he has for uni.

He sighed at the amount of work he had to do, it was never-ending.

“You want to come with me to practice some more?” Jun invited Wonwoo.

Wonwoo looked up, “sure, I’ve got plenty of pieces to practice for.”

Together, they packed up and walked outside.

“So, where we headed?” He asked.

“My friend owns a couple of studios that I usually go to practice in,” Jun said.

“Who’s the friend?”

“Kwon Yuri, she was one of my oboe and piano tutors back in junior high.”

“You were here for junior high?” Wonwoo was surprised at that fact.

“Yeah, my family moved around a lot for business. That’s why I know Korean even though I’m Chinese,” Jun told him.

Wonwoo didn’t know if he should probe around anymore in case the subject was sensitive. Too bad he didn’t listen to the logical voice in his head, “tell me more.”

Jun stopped walking, looking very confused, “you actually want to hear more about my childhood?”

“Yeah, sure, why not,” he shrugged.

“Okay then…let’s see, well I already told you that I moved around a lot. I’ll tell you about my time in Korea then.”

Wonwoo nodded as if to tell him to go ahead.

“I moved here after I turned 13, the transition was quite hard for me to be honest. Learning Korean was hard and I missed my friends back in Shenzhen,” Jun tried not to get too emotional. “Anyway, after a year and a half I was pretty decent in Korean. I still didn’t really feel like Korea was my home in any sense but it was liveable. I landed myself a couple of modelling gigs by then too.”

Wonwoo wasn’t surprised at all when Jun mentioned modelling gigs. He was what the typical Asian stereotypes were anyway. Perhaps he really didn’t go under the knife. If he didn’t, Wonwoo felt guilty about how he judged him for his looks.

“It was good then, I had friends, made money, and still was able to play the oboe and piano. I think it was then that I found out my love for music too. Long story short, my family had to move once again. We moved to Hong Kong but I’ll tell you that story another day,” Jun smiled at Wonwoo.

His smile made something in his stomach swirl, he probably was just hungry or such.

“Tell me a bit of your childhood, I’ve told you mine and it’s only fair that you tell me yours,” the oboe player walked in tow with the violin player.

Wonwoo agreed to tell him a bit of his childhood, “since you talked about junior high, I’ll talk about my life as a junior high student.”

“Go on.”

“Mine isn’t as exciting as yours. I stayed in Changwon for my entire childhood, and unlike you, I was already pursuing music as a career by then. I auditioned for my first youth symphony around my first year in junior high. Was accepted in and played there for two years. It was very different and made me appreciate musicians even more,” Wonwoo took a breath.

“Everything was going smoothly till my parents divorced. I don’t want to get into much detail, but I had to quit the youth symphony. It was a hard time for me because I missed the people at my youth symphony, and I never wanted to be back at home.”

Jun stared intently at Wonwoo, waiting for what he was going to say next.

“That’s when I got back into writing because I could write about another person’s life that wasn’t in the same state that I was. By that time, I had already lost motivation to play the violin and flute. Eventually, as things settled down, I gradually got back into music. And that’s it,” Wonwoo concluded.  
Jun was speechless, wanting to say something but didn’t know what.

“Wow, thank you for telling me,” Jun finally said something. “It must have not been easy to open up like that to a…”

Jun let that sentence fall, he didn’t know what they were. Neither did Wonwoo. Were they friends? Fellow musicians? Or maybe something closer?

“You too, I don’t think many people have told me stuff like that before,” Wonwoo smiled softly at Jun.

“Same here,” Jun smiled back.

 

Wonwoo’s eyes popped out of his skulls when he saw the studio; it was huge. It was bigger than all three of Jihoon’s, Wonwoo’s, and Soonyoung’s bedrooms combined. This Kwon Yuri is far richer than Wonwoo will ever be.

“Let’s take turns practicing because otherwise, I might get the urge to tell you to stop playing every once in a while,” Jun told him.

“Sounds like a plan,” Wonwoo dropped his bag by the windows. “You can go first.”

Jun replied with a, “kay,” and set off to practice.

Wonwoo worked on his composition assignment while Jun practiced. It was difficult but he could manage it.

After half an hour, Wonwoo got bored of doing his assignment. He chose that time to listen more intently to Jun’s piece. It had a slow tempo and lots of slurs, Wonwoo detected. The slow and quiet piece brought back memories from elementary school. However, he didn’t want to interrupt Jun’s playing so he got back to his work.

A couple minutes passed and there was silence. Wonwoo looked up and saw Jun setting aside his oboe.

“Your turn,” Jun announced.

“What piece did you play? It sounded very nice,” Wonwoo said.

“Gabriel’s Oboe, it’s a piece that I’m required to play for my music class. It’s not that bad so I don’t feel too forced playing it,” Jun plopped down on the floor with his laptop.

“It sounds very good though.”

“Thanks, Wonwoo.”

He took out his violin and sheet music. He tuned then warmed up like any other practice session. The pieces that he was going to play were his pieces required for his music class too. Technically, it shouldn’t even be called music class since it was just all the students going into a studio to practice the pieces assigned that will be graded by the end of the term.

 

By the time that the sun had set hours ago, Wonwoo and Jun left the studio. They each practiced playing on their respective instruments for an hour and a half. Wonwoo was almost done his assignment too. It was productive, he concluded.

“See you next time,” Jun said as he walked away from Wonwoo.

“You too,” Wonwoo walked away from Jun.

Wonwoo texted Soonyoung, asking if there were any takeout leftovers.

 **hoeshi:** Yep. all cold and ready for you  
**thewonandonly:** Appreciated man

 

“Ay, look who’s back,” Soonyoung looked up from the couch.

“I got an essay and an assignment to finish, and then I’ll be all done for the evening. That means I’ll be going to sleep at 2am,” Wonwoo said, happy that he will be able to sleep for one extra hour.

“The life of a university student,” Soonyoung replied, mockingly saying it.

He got out the takeout from the fridge and ate it while watching the news with Soonyoung. Jihoon was still out studying at their school library, so Wonwoo saved some leftovers for him.

After, Wonwoo got back to business. He finished his assignment and essay for the night. When he was done, he put away all his work and checked his phone. He received two messages from Jun:

 **11:07pm**  
**My Not So Favourite Oboist:** You wanna go practice together again Sunday?  
**1:29pm**  
**My Not So Favourite Oboist:** Seeing you didn’t reply, I’m guessing you’re finishing up on your essay. Don’t stay up too late!  
**2:11pm**  
**My Favourite Violinist:** I don’t know if I want to practice with you again. I think you got more playing time than me, it’s very unfair. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
**My Favourite Violinist:** Good night to you too. If you get nightmares, they’re my revenge for the unfair playing time.

Wonwoo knew the instant that he read Jun’s message what his answer would be. Of course, he would go practice with him again at that huge studio. He found it entertaining when he messed with Jun, so why not do it again?

Amused, Wonwoo fell on his bed and sleep consumed him.

 

It was Sunday, symphony rehearsal day and studio day with Jun. Wonwoo was excited for once that it was a Sunday. He’d normally dread Sunday because the day after was Monday and that meant a whole new week of lectures.

When he arrived at the building, he checked the bulletin board to see if something new was posted. There was a calendar with a bunch of dates. There were all the rehearsal dates and the concert days. The closest one was a month from now. Wonwoo sighed as he’ll have less and less free time in March.

He spotted Jun when he walked into the room, already practicing on his oboe. Wonwoo sat in his seat and prepped his violin. He ended up having a bit of free time after warming up, so he decided to go visit Jun.

Jun noticed him immediately, “jerk.”

“For what?” Wonwoo smirked.

“For leading me on to think that you actually weren’t going to go practice with me today,” Jun glared at him.

“Well, I’m coming with you now so no worries,” Wonwoo laughed.

Jun tried hard not to break his cold face but failed. He rolled his eyes then smiled at Wonwoo.

“You want to go eat first?” Jun asked.

“If it’s food then it’s always a yes.”

Their conductor chose that time to enter, and Wonwoo went back to his seat.

Practice was fine, Wonwoo had a few difficulties with the new piece that they were just handed out but otherwise, it was relatively okay. He helped another second with a difficult line in their piece and Jeno sounded much better after.

The hours of practice finally came to an end, though, and Wonwoo packed up to go eat with Jun. He followed Jun, wondering what the restaurant would serve.

“Are you allergic or do you not like any type of food?” Jun asked, waiting for the stop light.

“Seafood, can’t have them unless you want my throat to be swollen and me breaking out in hives,” Wonwoo said.

“But you lived by the sea!” Jun commented, extremely surprised at the fact.

“Let’s just say that I avoided a lot of restaurants. Thank goodness I don’t live there now,” he replied, truly glad that he lived in Seoul.

Wonwoo heard Jun sigh and he smiled to himself. He felt like Jun knew way more of him than any of his friends that he’s been with for a long time, excluding Soonyoung and Jihoon of course. What did this mean?

After walking in the cold for twenty minutes, they stopped by a modern looking cafe. It looked cozy, Wonwoo thought.

“Not a restaurant this time but one of the best cafes in Seoul,” Jun opened the door for him.

“We’ll see about that,” Wonwoo walked in, instantly feeling warmer.

“Order what you want, everything is good on their menu,” the person beside him nodded to the menu.

Wonwoo couldn’t read it from over here, but he wanted a coffee and something to eat. When it was their turn to order, Jun got a coffee with one sugar and cream, and a croissant. Wonwoo decided to order a black coffee and a slice of dark chocolate cake.

Cake wasn’t his favourite because it was expensive and often too sweet, but that dark chocolate cake looked so delicious that Wonwoo couldn’t help but order it. When they received their coffees and deserts, they walked over to a table by the wall.

Once they sat down, Wonwoo took a bite of his cake. It was absolutely delicious, he almost moaned. Unlike some other cakes, there was a bitterness to the cake that could be tasted through the sweetness. He finished his cake in no time, savouring every moment.

“You look to be liking that cake,” Jun commented, eating his own croissant.

“You need to bring me to more places,” Wonwoo replied, taking a sip of his coffee.

“Told you it was one of the best cafes.”

“I shouldn’t have doubted that.”

“What can I say? I’m always right,” Jun smirked.

Wonwoo rolled his eyes, “keep on saying that.”

“We’re always going to places that I like, next time we should go to a place that you really like,” the guy across from him said.

“That will be a local, crappy restaurant and then the library.”

Jun shrugged, “food is food, and the library always has something.”

He looked at Jun, wondering if he truly didn’t mind going to a crappy restaurant and then the library, “if you say so.”

They sat there for a couple of more minutes then they decided to head out. Like before, Wonwoo followed Jun to the studio. He wasn’t very familiar with this side of the city and would have probably gotten lost if it wasn’t for Jun. The coffee in Wonwoo’s hand warmed him up a bit as the day got colder.

“Tell me about another time in your life,” Wonwoo sipped his coffee.

“Okay,” Jun said, thinking, “let me tell you about when I went back to China.”

Wonwoo waited patiently for Jun’s story.

“I was happy about going back home to Shenzhen, I missed a lot of my friends there. I made it into Shenzhen’s School of Arts and Theatre where a lot of my friends went. It was kind of weird seeing them again after three years, pictures just don’t do you justice. Anyway, school was fine for the first two years. I did more modelling and made it into a youth symphony,” Jun told him.

“I managed to not forget any of the Korean that I learned by watching Korean shows and chatting with a few friends that I made here. Third year comes and I was absolutely drowning in all the work that I had to do for school, entrance exams, and searching for a university. I quit modelling to focus on my studies and music. Something with my friend group also happened at that time and I felt excluded. Maybe I’ll tell you what happened another day.”  
Wonwoo wondered what could have happened to Jun to make him feel excluded. Maybe it was a fight between friends, who knows?

“That’s one of the main reasons why I decided to come back to Korea. After a couple months of studying, youth symphony, and additional practicing, I felt like the dead. My whole day was study, music, and sleep. I got burnt out and took a break for a weekend. I met up with a couple friends from back when I went to school in Seoul, and we went on a road trip around Korea. I didn’t remember the last time that I truly enjoyed myself like that, it was eye opening to how miserable I had been. That basically concluded my decision on whether to go to uni in China or Korea,” Jun ended his tale about when he was in high school.

“Who were your friends?” Wonwoo asked, amazed by his story.

“Jeonghan, Seungcheol, and Jisoo. Sadly, I don’t hang out with them much anymore since none of them lives in Seoul anymore.”

“Where did they go?”

“Jisoo went back to study in America, Seungcheol ended up joining a Kpop group called Nu’est, and Jeonghan, well he…,” Jun didn’t know how much he wanted to tell Wonwoo, “he ended up in a…fatal accident.”

“Oh…,” Wonwoo muttered, not wanting to push any further on that fact.

“Don’t worry about it, I don’t think that Jeonghan would have wanted us to grieve too much about it. If he could, he would have told us to get moving on our dreams and then proceed to pull a dumb prank on us,” Jun smiled, remembering about Jeonghan and all the mischievous things he did. “Tell me about your high school life now.”

“Sure. High school was actually a pretty good time in my childhood. The drama around my parents' divorce had slowly dissipated. My brother and I stayed with our mom and her new husband in Changwon. I auditioned for a bigger youth symphony and got accepted. I started to get more recognized and would play more often in public. It was nice,” Wonwoo said.

“I always knew where I wanted to go for graduate school and that was Seoul National Art University. By then, I wasn’t too worried about getting declined because I had a pretty good portfolio. I was worried about the college exam because I had to do really well on it. The majority of my days in high school were like yours; school, music, and study,” he paused, thinking.

“Actually, now that I think about it, it kind of sucked.”

Jun chuckled.

“Yeah,” Wonwoo was surprised at how few memories he remembered besides constantly studying and performing. “Jeez, my high school life was lame.”

Jun laughed at that, it was a nice sound.

“Well then. I didn’t have much drama when I was in high school. I had a group of friends but we don’t talk anymore. I certainly didn’t have anything exciting as your road trip. I did, however, perform with Changwon’s symphony orchestra for a couple of concerts, and won some competitions but that’s about it. And that is the end of my high school story,” Wonwoo laughed at how much his life back in high school really sucked.

They laughed together over Wonwoo’s lame high school life. It was a good time and Wonwoo forgot all about the cold. Jun wasn’t so bad after all, he concluded. Wonwoo smiled to himself while enjoying his company.

What will become of us? The swirling motion in his stomach begged to ask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some Wonhui fluff and background about them! 
> 
> This story was originally meant to be an angst so this is around the start of the middle-ish parts in what I planned. Enjoy this Wonhui fluff while it lasts ;)


	6. Mendelssohn Violin Concerto E.Minor OP.64

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Midterms are here and Wonwoo is stressed™.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy easter! and april fools! (don't worry, this isn't an april fools chapter,,,or is it?)

Midterms were coming. The three guys who couldn’t cook stressed over the amount of midterms they had. They barely did anything except for study, dance, compose music, or violin practice. 

 

One of them, in particular, was so busy with all the work that he barely ate or slept. Wonwoo cursed himself mentally for majoring in music composition. Not only did he have a shit ton of pieces to practice, he also had to write and analyze a shit ton. He desperately needed a break but he felt like he would fail if he did take one, so he didn’t.

 

He hated the end of any month because it either meant midterms or exams. Which meant a dead Wonwoo, inside and out. At least when it’s over, he’ll get a week off. 

 

Wonwoo’s daily routine consisted of: get up, study, breakfast, shower if there is time, violin, snack, violin, dinner, study, sleep. It was a repeating cycle that made his brains want to explode and his neck sore every day.

 

Tomorrow would be Wonwoo’s first midterm, it was his historical music one. He needed to play two pieces and then write the midterm. The class wasn’t too hard, and Wonwoo felt like he would come out of that one unscathed.

 

What he was really anxious for was his composition classes, Wonwoo struggled the most in those classes compared to any other. Luckily, he had Jihoon on his side for his modern composition one.

 

He realized that he blanked out and immediately returned back to his essay. He knew that he had to write two essays for the midterm, so he planned for them. Wonwoo looked at a sentence, unsure if he should include it or not. 

 

He had to get rid of a few hundred words or else he might not be able to fill his whole entire essay in. Sighing, Wonwoo got back to deleting or rephrasing sentences. 

 

 

 

It was noon now. He spent the first two hours working on his essay and then practicing the pieces that he was going to play. Wonwoo didn’t have time to eat a full lunch, nor the time to buy one, so he ate some vegetable crackers. 

 

It wasn’t very filling but at least he ate something. Shortly after stuffing a couple crackers in his mouth, he got back to practicing one of the pieces. The lines where it was supposed to be this fast, dark, and forte part were Wonwoo’s least favourite. Especially since it often transitioned to be more piano and “creeping” and then, immediately back to staccatos and forte.

 

When he felt that he finally had that piece under his belt, he went back to analyzing the two pieces. Wonwoo expected that the professor was going to ask several questions about each piece. It was probably going to be on the composer, the time period and how that reflected onto the piece, and such since it was his historical music midterm.

 

 

The sun slowly set as Wonwoo continued to study and rework his essays. He was extremely hungry but was almost done with drafting up his essays. He knew he wouldn’t have time to write out two full essays so he worked on an outline. Hopefully, he’ll be able to memorize those.

 

When the sun had fully set, Wonwoo got up and headed off to the kitchen. Like Wonwoo, Soonyoung and Jihoon were both in their rooms studying their brains off. He heated up a twelve-inch deluxe pizza, got to get those vegetables in, and ate a third of it. The rest of the pizza was left on the counter for when Soonyoung and Jihoon decide to eat or snack.

 

Full, he headed back to his room to study. He spent time reviewing his lectures and notes and then memorizing his essay outlines. Wonwoo lost track of how many hours he studied, only that when he looked at the clock, it read 2:03am.  


He decided that that would be a good time to head off to bed. He noticed that he had three unread messages from Jun. 

 

**1:37am**

**My Not So Favourite Oboist:** I’m heading off to bed now, got an exam early in the afternoon.

**My Not So Favourite Oboist:** Good night! Don’t stay up too late, get your rest pls.

**My Not So Favourite Oboist:** Good luck on your midterm tomorrow (technically today) too. Call me tomorrow to let me know how your midterm went!

**2:04am**

**My Favourite Violinist:** Will do. Talk to you later when my brains have been vomited onto my exam paper.

 

Wonwoo set an alarm at 9:15am, sleeping in an extra thirty minutes to hopefully not be tired as much. With that, he dreamed of playing the pieces for his midterm tomorrow. Except, he was never happy with them and continued to replay them over and over again, never satisfied with any of them.

 

 

 

After three hours doing his historical midterm, Wonwoo was finally done with it. He treated himself with buying an extra large smoothie and half an hour of reading time. Wonwoo hardly got to read books that weren’t assigned to him since the last year of high school to now. He read once in a blue moon and today was one of them.

 

Suddenly, he remembered that he had to call Jun. He dialled his number, waiting for an answer at the other end. 

 

“Hey Wonwoo, whatcha doing?” Came a cheerful Jun at the other end.

 

“Calling you, duh,” he rolled his eyes but was secretly happy inside.

 

“Fine. What were you doing before that?”

 

“Reading and finishing up my smoothie,” Wonwoo chucked his empty washed cup in the garbage.

 

“Ooh, what book?” Jun was curious at what type of books Wonwoo read.

 

“Me Before You by Jojo Myes,” he replied with a very bad English accent.

 

“Huh, gotta look that one up.” Jun memorized the name in his head.

 

“So, how was your first midterm?”

 

“The usual, I wrote an essay, answered some questions, and played a couple of pieces.”

 

“Same here.”

 

“How’d you think you did?” Jun asked.

 

“Fine, I guess. I didn’t bullshit things too much,” Wonwoo actually felt quite prepared for that midterm.

 

“Always better than bullshitting everything.”

 

“When is your next midterm?”

 

“Tomorrow actually,” Jun said, sarcastically. “I love making my eyes and brains bleed.”

 

“Don’t forget about your hands too,” Wonwoo added.

 

“What about you?”

 

“The day after I’ve got my literature one.”

 

“Oh, good luck. Korean literature was always my hardest class,” he shuddered at the memories of non-fluent Jun.

 

“That’s no surprise since you’re not Korean.”

 

“Yeah, I guess.”

 

“I’m gonna let you go and study now. Bye,” Wonwoo waited for Jun’s goodbye.

 

“See ya.”

 

He resumed with his daily routine of studying. Wonwoo loved literature, though, so at least it was interesting. 

 

“Just a couple more midterms to go,” he said to himself.

 

 

 

Two weeks had gone by and Wonwoo had never felt more relieved. After fourteen days of just studying and absolute stress, he returned home and took a nap. It was great. He felt alive and well again.

 

He hadn’t bothered to check his phone yet, knowing that Jun probably texted him. His nap was his first priority, food was second, and Jun was third. It sounded weird, Wonwoo thought. Why did he think of Jun all the time?

 

Wonwoo’s stomach grumbled and erased him of his thoughts. He got up and threw on some decent clothes for once. After, Wonwoo made his way to their local smoothie store.

 

The weather was most definitely getting warmer but he still had to wear a coat. Just one more month till the heavy garments come off, he told himself. Otherwise, the stroll was pretty nice. He didn’t remember the last time that he walked somewhere without rushing.

 

He ordered a berry blend smoothie with chia seeds, a strawberry banana one for Soonyoung, and a green blend for Jihoon. Wonwoo weren’t sure where they were but he knew for sure that they would appreciate a smoothie.

 

Walking back to their apartment, he thought about his future. In less than a year, Wonwoo would be graduating. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to pursue his studies, or go straight into the workforce.

 

He shuddered, thinking about work. Everyone in Seoul knew that work meant ridiculous hours, or at least it is for a lot of fields. Wonwoo planned on becoming a violin tutor while still, hopefully, working for Pledis symphony.

 

That way he could make a few extra couple of bucks. He didn’t know when he wanted to audition for a bigger and better symphony orchestra though. He knew that he couldn’t stay at Pledis for forever. He just didn’t know where he wanted to go.

 

Sighing, Wonwoo opened the doors to their apartment. He saw Jihoon on the couch, laying down and presumably napping. Not wanting to disturb him, he quietly put the rest of the smoothies in the fridge and went to his room.

 

He sipped his smoothie while checking his messages and social media. Wonwoo had one unread message from Jun.

 

**5:02pm**

**My Not So Favourite Oboist:** MIDTERMS ARE OVER!!!! 

 

Wonwoo smiled, typing out a response.

 

**5:56pm**

**My Favourite Violinist:** thank fuck or else I would have fashioned a rope with all the papers I wrote.

 

He had quite a few unread messages and emails. Wonwoo didn't have the time or the energy to check them while he was studying and practicing like a maniac.

 

He received a couple from his mom and dad, checking up on him, a group chat that apparently included Jihoon, Soonyoung, Jun, Mingyu, and Minghao, and emails reminding him that he was an adult and had to do adult things.

 

Slowly, he worked his way with replying to everyone, or simply just reading the messages left in the group chat, and writing a cheque for his portion of rent. He also worked his way through filing his taxes.

 

Being an adult was hard. He had barely made it through a fifth of the way for his taxes. At least he had over a month left to submit them.

 

His phone beeped.

 

**Unread Message From Jihoon, Soonyoung….Group Chat**

**6:45pm**

**Soonyoung:** we need to celebrate the end of midterms.

 

Wonwoo knew by “celebrate”, Soonyoung meant a night of endless alcohol and regrets the next day. He had lived with him for two years now and experienced countless amounts of times they did this. He knew better, but he kind of felt up to drinking his worries away or at least for one night.

 

**Wonwoo:** I’m up for Soonyoung embarrassing himself, let’s do it.

**Soonyoung:** shut up loser.

 

Wonwoo grinned, reading Soonyoung’s reply. 

 

**Wonwoo:** you should look in the mirror first.

**Soonyoung:** I only see a handsome and amazing man in the mirror.

**Wonwoo:** keep telling yourself that.

**Soonyoung:** I will.

 

He laughed at Soonyoung’s defensive comments. Soonyoung could always make Wonwoo either laugh or roll his eyes. Sometimes both. Wonwoo rolled his eyes just thinking about Soonyoung’s joking personality.

 

Wonwoo spent the rest of night catching up with people and enjoying a good meal with Jihoon and Soonyoung. It was very nice.

 

 

 

A day had passed since Wonwoo’s last midterm. Soonyoung planned on having a “party” at one of their places, nobody had volunteered their apartment up for obvious reasons. It probably was going to be at theirs since he doubted Jun or Mingyu and Minghao would let a party happen at theirs.

 

Wonwoo didn’t actually know where Jun lived. Well…Jun didn’t know where Wonwoo lived either. Or did he? He doesn’t remember telling him where he lived and he was sure that he hadn’t invited Jun over when they went out a couple of weeks ago. 

 

Shaking his head of his thoughts, he set out to work on his taxes. He did not want to be like first or second year Wonwoo who did his taxes the week before they were due. He was almost 23, shuddering at the thought that he was going into the middle years of twenty. He was inevitably getting old.

 

The image of an old and wrinkly Wonwoo snapped him out of his thoughts. He shuddered once more at what he conjured up.

 

He quickly got back to working on his taxes, happy for the distraction from the images and thoughts.

 

 

An hour passed and Wonwoo could safely say that he was halfway through. His desk was littered with all his things from 2017; receipts, tuition fees, rent, etc. 

 

 

Several hours had passed and it was now what Soonyoung would call “party time”. Jun, Mingyu, and Minghao were expected to be at their apartment any time now. Wonwoo had cleaned up a bit to make it look somewhat clean and neat.

 

Soonyoung had a reluctant Jihoon go and buy more alcohol since their supply was getting ridiculously low. Their kitchen counters now held several cups, shot glasses, and, of course, all different kinds of alcohol.

 

Wonwoo wasn’t a hard alcohol type of person, he preferred his wines way more. It was one thing to get hammered drunk and pass out, it was another to get a little bit tipsy but still able to tell left from right. 

 

A knock on the door interrupted his wave of thought. He heard Soonyoung call out that he’ll get the door, so Wonwoo continued to lay down on the couch scrolling through social media. 

 

“Aye, what’s up?” Soonyoung greeted Mingyu, Minghao, and Jun.

 

“The ceiling, obviously,” Mingyu replied, cheekily.

 

It earned an eye roll from Minghao and a smile from Jun.

 

“We’re playing it that way, huh?” Soonyoung closed the door.

 

Mingyu nodded, looking at his new surrounding. “You’ve got a pretty nice apartment.”

 

“Thanks, we try to keep it nice.”

 

Wonwoo obviously had to butt in on that, “you mean Jihoon and I try to keep it nice?”

 

“I mean all of us,” Soonyoung smiled through his lies.

 

“Hahaha, didn’t know today was April Fool’s,” the man across from Wonwoo spoke.

 

“You guys sure remind me of Mingyu and Minghao’s bickering,” Jun said, looking at Wonwoo.

 

“Yeah well, Mingyu’s pretty stupid,” Minghao walked over to the alcohol kitchen.

 

Mingyu opened his mouth to say some not very nice things about Minghao, only to be interrupted by Soonyoung, “okay, let’s calm it down a bit. We haven’t even started drinking yet.”

 

Wonwoo followed everyone to their tiny kitchen. He stood by the side, waiting to see which drink they’ll be having first.

 

“I see you too have a collection of cheap liquor,” Mingyu commented.

 

“Blame it on the college life,” Wonwoo replied.

 

They shared looks before soon breaking contact. Wonwoo had no reason to feel awkward around Mingyu, but he still did a bit. 

 

“Let’s start with a classic shot of soju before anything,” Soonyoung began to pour the soju into the glasses.

 

Together, they all took a burning shot of hard liquor. Wonwoo’s taste buds felt singed off already. He automatically shook his head as if that’ll get rid of the burning sensation.

 

“Another one!” Soonyoung called out.

 

After they had taken two shots and had a cup of their respective alcohol, they sat in the living room.

 

“Let’s do dare or drink,” Mingyu suggested.

 

“Nothing good ever comes out of this,” Jihoon rolled his eyes.

 

Wonwoo 100% agreed with Jihoon. It always ended up with Wonwoo doing something embarrassing or stupid, or both.

 

“We’ll hardly remember it.”

 

“Not with you sticking your phone up everyone’s ass,” Minghao retorted, sipping his drink.

 

Mingyu gave him the middle finger which got a couple of “oooh”s from Soonyoung. 

 

“What do you want to do then?” He sneered at Minghao.

 

“Drink,” Minghao replied as if that was obvious.

 

Everyone but Mingyu and Minghao snickered. In the end, they “agreed” upon doing the sinking Titanic game. The first loser was Soonyoung who poured a bit too much and sunk the glass. He didn’t mind drinking the alcohol though.

 

Two more rounds ensued before they switched on to the next game. Wonwoo had lost the last round and was quite tipsy now. He could feel his grip on control slowly slip away.

 

They tried to play Baskin Robbins 31, where they could say up to three numbers and the person who says “31” drinks, but some members soon became too drunk to properly count. Those members were Soonyoung, who drank way more than anyone else, and Jihoon, who couldn’t hold his liquor well.

 

“Let’s play dare or drink now!” Mingyu shouted.

 

Soonyoung quickly shouted, “yeah!”

 

Drunk Wonwoo didn’t mind it, he wasn’t quite sure why he minded it at all in the first place. And so they set off to either do it or drink it.

 

“Jun…kiss Wonwoo or drink!” Soonyoung dared the man across from Wonwoo.

 

That sure got Wonwoo’s attention. He looked up at Jun to see what he will do. He saw his hands slowly start to move towards the alcohol.

 

“Oh come on, it’s just a little kiss,” Mingyu peppered Jun.

 

Wonwoo felt like there were waves crashing against his stomach. He hasn’t felt this in a very long time. Jun seemed to look at him to ask if it was okay. Wonwoo held Jun’s eye contact, fearing if he broke it.

 

He saw Jun coming towards, he braced himself. With every millimetre closer, Wonwoo heard the fast beat of his heart more and more. By the time that he could feel Jun’s breathing, his breath hitched.

 

Wonwoo found it hard to breathe, staring at Jun. What was a couple of seconds felt like an eternity to him. Suddenly, he could feel two sets of lips by his cheeks. The warmth from them made him crave it even more.

 

Sadly, it was gone just as fast as it had been there for. He broke eye contact with Jun, hand on the area of his cheek where Jun’s lips had just been. The sound of a metronome and waves clashed in his ears. 

 

“Aw, that was lame,” he heard Soonyoung say.

 

What was lame to one man was amazing to the next.

 

The rest of the night continued with more and more drinking. Nothing came as close to as the feel of Jun’s lips on his cheeks. Wonwoo could almost feel them there once again. He remembered filming a video of Soonyoung licking the toilet. 

 

The night ended when barely any of them could form coherent sentences, and calling for a taxi was hard. When it was just the three of them again, Wonwoo passed out on the couch. 

 

He dreamt of the sounds of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto E. Minor OP.64 playing while he sat by the shore. Everything looked and sounded nice, but the prettiest one was the man beside him. A dream in a dream.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi it's me again, updating after 203839 years. 
> 
> But can we talk about how good ten's 'dream in a dream' is?? How have i not found out about it till two days ago?? Ten is a god and like wow. I am so amazed and mind blown. I can't even write anymore hfosidhf

**Author's Note:**

> Late, but happy Chinese New Year to anyone who celebrates it! 一点点晚但新年快乐！  
> Updates will be slow because I am very unmotivated.


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